Well now that we're into this a couple rounds, guess it hasn't gone as the Chairman Wheeler or some in Congress had hoped. Something like an original estimate of $86B for the spectrum and so far they're at what, maybe $23B down hill with a tail wind? Guess the cell companies weren't THAT hungry for spectrum after all. Maybe they learned a lesson after Sprint over-paid for the 2Ghz ENG space.

Speaking of learning a lesson: This whole fiasco reminds me of the MMDS wireless cable auctions in the 90's. Guy's were buying at the auction pretty good chunks of spectrum in markets for $5K, when it was expected to be worth millions per market.

The timing for Wheeler's departure with the result of this repack/auction Gong Show couldn't be better. For Chairman Wheeler, that is.

What will get interesting will be the unraveling of all those TV deals premised on a spectrum-auction pot of gold. Many buyers will soon find a banker dressed up like an evil leprechaun at the end of the auction & repack rainbow.

TPT wrote:What will get interesting will be the unraveling of all those TV deals premised on a spectrum-auction pot of gold. Many buyers will soon find a banker dressed up like an evil leprechaun at the end of the auction & repack rainbow.

And several manufacturers (specially in the TV Antenna heavy companies) who were banking on the repack giving them their next shot in life...

ATSC 3.0 may be that next shot in the arm, but who knows when that bus comes crashing down the highway.

I watch less TV now than I have at any time in my adult life, despite the fact that I have more channels currently available from my cable system than at any time in my life, and I watch almost none online. I also listen to less radio than at any time in my adult life, although there are three NPR programs that I listen to each week online. Two are not available on my local NPR station. The third is on while I am at church so I listen to the stream of a distant station at another time. The reason for my decrease in radio and TV consumption can be explained in a single word - content. I spend far more time listening to my thousands of CDs than I spend listening to radio or watching TV combined. I still read a lot (I own about 10,000 books). I bought well over 100 used CDs in 2016. I buy less new CDs than ever, although in 2016 I bought more newly released CDs than in any year in the past decade plus - I bought new albums by David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, Lake Street Dive, Iggy Pop, Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, and Neil Young, as well as one remaster so significant that it almost counts as a new release - the Beatles' remastered Hollywood Bowl concerts.

Even though I still work in broadcasting I no longer consume much of it.

Boston (my home market) is theoretically only around 9% OTA viewing (Not counting the numerous other providers like DirecTV who pick up everyone OTA). However when the October master antenna burn out happened , one day before the Football game, ask the local CBS (WBZ-TV) about how many viewers are watching OTA. I think the number (9%) is rather quite low. It is much higher.

Cable got too high and too restrictive when they made the whole service digital. No ESPN; no Weather Channel. Local TV Subs not carried. Why pay money? So we are an OTA household.

We live about a mile and a half from the big 3 stations. A push pin in the F connector is sufficient antenna for them. Have to get more creative for the others. MeTV and Grit seem to garner most of our watching. Wifey likes westerns and any movie with John Wayne in it.

Serious pixelization and audio interruptions when the wind is blowing. It's intermod central around here; more so when it's windy. Sometimes we long for ghosts, picket fencing, and snow. Still get picket fencing when aircraft are in the vicinity; it just tears up your program more than it used to. Human eyes and ears can pick the video out of the snow and the audio out of the mud if given the chance.

Dale H. Cook wrote:I watch less TV now than I have at any time in my adult life...

...The reason for my decrease in radio and TV consumption can be explained in a single word - content.

...Even though I still work in broadcasting I no longer consume much of it.

Exactly. Granted I am well beyond the target demographic for most of the programming (when did I get old, anyway?!?), but frankly most of the stuff being produced nowadays is beyond inane. We had an intermittent problem with one of our stations a few months ago that forced me to have the audio up in my office for several weeks; after a full day of The View, Dr. Oz, Steve Wilkos, Cheaters, and the like, I was about ready to hurl my television off the roof toward the nearest dumpster.

Boston (my home market) is theoretically only around 9% OTA viewing (Not counting the numerous other providers like DirecTV who pick up everyone OTA). However when the October master antenna burn out happened , one day before the Football game, ask the local CBS (WBZ-TV) about how many viewers are watching OTA. I think the number (9%) is rather quite low. It is much higher.

And as more of us consider cutting the cord, it'll get even higher.

As I recall back in 2008, a year before the DTV transition, BIA was claiming that the national average for OTA TV reception was 19%. They expected that number would reduce further after the transition, mainly because viewers who just take the easy way out and go cable/satellite. Some markets like Boise ID, have an unusually high number of OTA viewers, even after DTV. That number was running over 40%.

As mentioned; there are states where cable head ends in several neighboring counties are fed OTA. Tennessee, Nashville in particular, being one. There are at least 18 rural and suburban counties whose small cable companies get local TV only via OTA.

Kelly wrote:As mentioned; there are states where cable head ends in several neighboring counties are fed OTA. Tennessee, Nashville in particular, being one. There are at least 18 rural and suburban counties whose small cable companies get local TV only via OTA.

That's also true around Upstate New York: Time Warner and Verizon generally take direct ASI feeds, but the smaller systems use OTA. And every one of our stations feeds Dish and DirecTV via OTA.

Kelly wrote:
As mentioned; there are states where cable head ends in several neighboring counties are fed OTA. Tennessee, Nashville in particular, being one. There are at least 18 rural and suburban counties whose small cable companies get local TV only via OTA.

We direct-feed Comcast, which in turn direct-feeds Charter. I don't know how far Charter's direct feed goes. (they serve as far away as Cookeville 75 miles to the east.) Between the two systems that covers most of the suburbs. Yes, many of the further outlying rural areas take OTA.

Google and U-Verse are also direct-fed. As in Jeff's case, both satellite services get OTA.

I don't know for absolute certain but I'm pretty sure our competition feeds the same way.

I've heard an OTA penetration figure above 20% for this market, not counting those who pay AT&T for an OTA feed:)